


sink or swim

by kirargent



Series: Triwizard-Tron [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 10:39:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10512075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirargent/pseuds/kirargent
Summary: Lance grits his teeth, looking around desperately for inspiration. He’s never taken a class on fending off huge sea-snakes! He’s gonna have to have a chat with Allura about curriculum.(The second task.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> If you've been reading this series, there will be a point near-ish the end of this piece at which you realize that...it feels like you've missed something!? That's because the Yule Ball & some other Shenanigans happen in between the last thing I posted & this, which is the second task. I _am_ gonna fill in the missing section, but it's not finished yet, and this is, and honestly who cares about posting things in order?
> 
> Anyways.

Water licks at Lance’s ankles, cold but familiar, lighting his veins with energy. He glances to his side where Keith stands, ten feet away.

“Hey,” he says in a loud whisper, getting Keith’s attention. Keith blinks at him.

“The second task will begin on my count of three,” Coran announces to the champions and to the spectators crammed into the stands at the lake’s edge. “One!”

Grinning, Lance gives Keith a wink.

Keith rolls his eyes and looks away, gripping his wand tightly at his side. Lance’s heart pounds with excitement and amusement and the tingly thrill that he gets whenever Keith sets his jaw in that particularly determined manner.

“Two!”

Lance bounces up and down on his toes, looking forward, wand ready at his side.

“Three!”

Lance whispers the incantation for the Bubble-Head Charm and dives forward into the water, arms an arrow ahead of his torso, feet pointed behind him. He doesn’t waste time checking on the other champions. Cool water streams past him, and he sticks his wand between his teeth, freeing his hands to cut through the water in swift, practiced strokes.

The motions are familiar; the scenery is a murky green collage with which Lance has become well-acquainted in the months he’s spent here at Hogwarts. The path to the mer-village is one he knows well.

He spies a grindylow watching him from within a forest of silky, swaying greenery, but by now most of them know not to mess with him. A sharp grin pulls his mouth as he passes by, kicking easily through the water toward the village.

The merpeople watch him swim to the village center from their doorways, although they’re unusually quiet as he passes. In the center square, Queen Luxia greets him with a glitter in her eye but no words of welcome.

Lance glances around the square, taking in its familiar border of buildings, the large statue of a merwoman that stands as centerpiece, and the less familiar sight of three people tied to her tail with thick green ropes. He looks closer. Tied there are two humans and one mermaid.

Lance frowns. “Plaxum?” he says. His voice echoes back to him from the sides of his air bubble, the sound bouncing within the soft helmet.

To Plaxum’s left is Pidge, looking tiny with her glasses missing and her hair a wild puff around her head. To the left of Pidge is…Shiro?

The merpeople took something the champions would “sorely miss”—it’s now clear that the song referred to their friends. Pidge must be here for Hunk to save, and Shiro for Keith. As far as Lance knows, he’s the only champion who’s befriended the mermaids; Plaxum is obviously his to rescue.

Okay, then. Easy enough.

He looks around the square again, searching for something with which to cut the ropes. Luxia’s spear catches his eye. He gestures to it, raising his eyebrows. The Queen smiles at him, but shakes her head.

“We may not help.”

Lance says, “Aw, come on,” and she chuckles at him lightly. Rolling his eyes, Lance keeps looking. It takes a moment for it to occur to him to use a spell, and his cheeks warm.

Stupid. That’s not a mistake a wizard from a magical family would’ve made.

Plaxum appears to be deeply asleep, as do Pidge and Shiro. Lance deals with Plaxum’s bindings quickly, careful not to slice into her pale turquoise skin.

“Where’s your girlfriend?” he asks as he cuts. “ _Diffindo!_ Is she seriously okay with this? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure I remember her trying to gut me when I hit on you the first time we met.”

“Florona is tending the garden while the task goes on,” Queen Luxia says, apparently deeming this information insignificant enough to be allowed. “I suggested she keep busy.”

Lance points a finger at Luxia, taking Plaxum’s hand with his free one and tugging her gently away from the statue. “That’s why you’re in charge down here. You’re smart.”

Luxia smiles at him indulgently, used to his excessive compliments and flirtations.

Lance glances back at Pidge and Shiro, chewing his lip. The lines “past an hour—the prospect’s black; too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back,” echo ominously through his mind. But he’d sooner suffer a Care of Magical Creatures class with Coran than let Keith beat him. They’ll be all right: Allura wouldn’t allow any harm to come to anyone during the tasks. Anyone who didn’t volunteer as champion, at least.

He does wonder, though…

The mermaids are much faster swimmers than he is. Luxia said she couldn’t help, but—could he persuade Florona to help him pull Plaxum to the surface? It’s not cheating if he wins because the mermaids like him, right? That seems like an advantage that he’s earned, diving down here nearly every day in the coldest months of the year.

“Well,” he says, raising a hand. “See ya!” He waves to the mer-Queen and, pulling Plaxum through the water behind him, swims deeper into the village toward the garden on the far side of town.

The scene he encounters is not what he expects. He’s barely to the edge of the village, still yards away from the garden, when Florona comes swimming toward him, a flash of pink against the murky depths. Pursuing her is…

Lance’s eyes widen. “Is that the _garden_?”

“The Baku is a living creature,” Florona says, stopping in front of him. “Lance, you have to help! It’s been upset by the wizards coming down here and casting spells to prepare for the Tournament.”

“Okay, so we just…sing it a lullaby, or something?”

Florona grasps him by the upper arm and pumps her tail hard, propelling all three of them upward just as the blue-green, wriggling snake opens its mouth to swallow them.

“No!” she cries. “It will destroy the village! We have to do something _now_!”

“I don’t know how to calm down a giant lake creature!” Lance says, voice climbing in pitch. He releases Plaxum’s hand, and Florona takes his place steering the unconscious mermaid through the water.

The Baku twists around and swims toward them once more.

“Shit!” Lance yells. “ _Fulgari!_ ”

But being wrapped in coils of shimmering magic does nothing to slow down the giant snake, only distracts it for a brief moment.

“Florona, get out of here!”

“I’ll get help!” Florona calls, swimming off with Plaxum in tow.

Lance grits his teeth, looking around desperately for inspiration. He’s never taken a class on fending off huge sea-snakes! He’s gonna have to have a chat with Allura about curriculum.

He casts a Cheering Charm, and a shrinking spell, but the creature is too large for his single spells to have much effect. As with other large creatures like dragons, Lance suspects, he would need several other people to cast the spell at the same time.

“Uh,” he says. “ _Locomotor boulder_!” Obeying his spell, a large stone from the floor of the lake rises through the muddy green water, following the directions of his pointing wand. The Baku curls toward him again; Lance barely manages to kick out of the way as it glides past, whip-fast and open-mouthed.

Lance positions the boulder in front of himself. The Baku turns, comes back—“ _Reducto!_ ” Lance yells. The rock explodes in the Baku’s face, chunks of stone blasted in all directions. A shard catches Lance’s cheek, and he winces, but it also stalls the snake, making it shake its head after the force of the explosion and the assault of sharp pieces of stone.

Lance moves fast, swimming for the rocky cliff beside the garden—or, he now knows, the creature that usually lies dormant and allows vegetation to grow upon its back. The village rests in the deepest part of the lake, the rock rising in a gradual slant toward the shore with the occasional sharp jump in elevation that forms a sudden cliff.

He turns, waits. This is great. He’s human bait for a giant, angry water-snake. What could go wrong?

The Baku approaches, cutting fast through the water.

Lance dodges thinly, feels the displacement of water as the snake just misses him.

Turning, he yells, “ _Expulso!_ ”

When the Queen arrives, the Baku is half-buried in rubble, struggling unsuccessfully to free itself.

“Uh,” Lance says. “I hope that guy’s okay? He seems pretty tough. I couldn’t get him to slow down without, uh.” He gestures at the pile of rock. “You know. Doing that.”

“She,” Queen Luxia says, smiling a little. “She is very durable, yes. She’ll be fine. We’ll soothe her once your task is completed.”

“Thank you, Lance,” Florona says. She blinks, glancing to Plaxum at her side, still unconscious. “Oh,” she says. “Um.” She returns her girlfriend to Lance with a shrug. “I believe you still need to complete your trial, champion.”

Lance says, “Oh, yeah. Right. Thanks.” He grips Plaxum’s hand, then shifts his grip to her waist because it’s easier. “Um. Bye, guys.”

Florona waves at him, and the Queen gives him a solemn nod.

Lance kicks upward, but he ascends with the sinking feeling that his hour is surely more than up.

 

Lance surfaces last of the three champions.

Upon breaking the surface, Plaxum wakes up. She blinks a few times, her eyes wide as she gathers her bearings. Then she squeezes Lance’s hand, places a kiss on his cheek, and dives back under the water.

Lance sloshes through the shallow part of the lake, muttering the counter-charm for his air bubble.

Hunk is standing in front of the judges’ table, a thin gray blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Also wearing a blanket, Pidge sits at the base of the stands behind the table, looking wet and rather annoyed. Keith and Shiro are standing a little ways from the table, talking quietly. Lance looks at them for a moment before he accepts a blanket from Allura at the table and steps back to stand beside Hunk.

“No one has scores yet,” Hunk tells him in a whisper. “What happened? What took you so long?”

“Uh,” Lance says. “I got sidetracked. I’m guessing the giant lake monster wasn’t part of the task?”

“ _What_?” Hunk looks horrified. “No.” His brow is a worried line. “Lance, what happened down there?”

“Like I said, giant lake monster. That’s about it. How’d you do? What about Keith?”

The heads of the schools get up from the judges’ table, approaching the edge of the water some yards away from where the champions are gathered. The crowd of students begins to murmur and point; Lance glances over to see that Queen Luxia has surfaced to converse with the headmasters.

“I think I did okay,” Hunk says quietly. “I used the Bubble-Head charm.”

Lance nudges his arm. “Me too!”

“I came up just after an hour, but I was the first one to surface. I was worried about you, dude! I was sure you’d come up first.”

“You beat Keith though?” Lance asks.

“Yeah.” Hunk shrugs. “I got held up by some Redcaps for a while, but I don’t know what happened to Keith. He got to the village even later than I did. He used like, Transfiguration? But he only did half his body.”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “Half? What did he half- turn into?”

Hunk licks his lips, appearing to swallow a smile. “A shark.”

Both of Lance’s eyebrows climb. “He transformed himself halfway into a shark,” he repeats.

“Yeah,” Hunk says. He’s smiling now. “Nothing simple for that guy.”

“He should’ve used Gillyweed, if he couldn't manage the Bubble-Head Charm,” Pidge says, joining them.

Hunk and Lance look at her.

“Gillyweed,” she says again. “Gives you gills and webbed feet, makes you really good in the water.”

“How do you know that?” asks Lances. “I don’t even know that, and I’m like, the water dude.”

Pidge rolls her eyes. “You don’t know everything, Lance.” She shrugs. “And it’s a plant. I’m good with plants.”

“Isn't Hunk's House supposed to be the plant-y one?" Lance asks.

“Hufflepuffs aren't the only ones who know stuff about plants,” Pidge says flatly. “Also, my threat still stands. If you tell anyone I’m good at Herbology, I’ll hide a Mandrake baby under your bed.”

“Whatever,” Lance says. He raises his voice a little. “I’m still just surprised that—” He lifts his voice even higher. “—Keith tried to turn himself into a shark!”

Keith glances over. His hair is sticking to the back of his neck, his pale feet and ankles sticking out beneath the blanket. He looks ridiculous. Lance grins.

He only grins more widely when Keith begins to head toward him.

“Babe,” he says, spreading his arms. “A shark? That’s all you could think of?”

Keith folds his arms, coming to a stop. “Call me ‘babe’ again and I’ll throw you right back into the lake.”

Lance smirks. “You just want to strip me out of my wet clothes.”

“The only thing I want to strip you out of is your cocky attitude.”

And he’s looking way too cool and collected right now, so Lance closes the few feet between them, curling his hands into the front of Keith’s blanket. He tugs Keith in, presses his mouth to Keith’s, gives his lower lip a gentle tug. Keith’s skin is cold, though touching him sends little tiny thrills of warmth through Lance’s nerve-endings.

Lance steps away. “ _And_ my clothes. Admit it.”

Keith rolls his eyes. His newly reddened mouth forms a tiny, smug smile. “Sure,” he says. “After I win the Tournament, you can help me celebrate, if you want.”

The tips of Lance’s ears grow hot, but he maintains a cool expression. Did Keith just imply—?

“Whatever,” Lance says. “When the judges hear about what happened down there, I’ll be in first freaking place.”

Keith lifts an eyebrow. “You took like ninety minutes. You were the last one up, Lance.”

“Just wait,” Lance tells him. “I was like, super heroic. You’ll see. Bet you I come in first for this task.”

Keith still looks skeptical, and a little like a wet, pissed-off cat, but he stays near and lets Lance keep his fingers twisted into his blanket, pressing close to try to steal Keith’s body-heat.

The judges talk for a long time. Lance bounces one knee, impatient, a growing anxiety buzzing just below his skin.

Allura returns to the judges’ table and speaks quietly with Coran, who then announces, “Scores will be out of fifty points!”

Lance unwraps his hands from Keith’s blanket, standing beside him instead, the backs of their hands just brushing.

“Making use of the Bubble-Head Charm, Hunk retrieved his stolen friend and surfaced in sixty-three minutes, earning a total of forty-seven points.”

Lance whoops loudly, watching a grin eclipse the worry on Hunk’s face. “Yeah!” he yells. Pidge punches Hunk in the arm. At Lance’s side, Keith claps politely, smiling as much as he ever does. Lance knows Keith wants to win, but it would take a real monster to begrudge Hunk a good score for a task well done.

“Using an incomplete but effective form of Transfiguration, Keith completed his task a full twelve minutes outside of the hour, but did succeed in rescuing his assignment, earning himself thirty-eight points!”

Lance bumps his shoulder hard into Keith’s, grinning as he watches Keith carefully maintain a neutral expression. “Dude, that’s not terrible,” Lance assures him. “I mean, I’m gonna do better, but that’s not bad!”

“Lance successfully completed his task, also using the Bubble-Head Charm, but went well over the time limit of one hour despite being the first to arrive at the village. Due to unforeseen circumstances complicating his task, Lance will be awarded…”

 _Fifty_ , Lance thinks. _Forty-nine. Come on, Coran_. He’s sure Luxia vouched for his heroism.

“…Thirty points.”

Coran falls silent, the crowd begins to murmur, and Lance’s stomach plummets to his toes. He opens his mouth.

For a moment he’s without words. He can think only, _What?_

Keith is still at his side, but Lance can’t seem to feel him; his body feels numb, disconnected.

He manages to say, “What?” Then again, more loudly. “ _What?_ Allura, what the hell?” Body unfreezing, he approaches her at the table, spreading his arms in question. “I was the first one to the square! I would’ve been first back, _and_ stayed within the hour, if I hadn’t stopped to _save the whole freaking mer-village_!”

Allura’s mouth is a thin, grim line. “I know,” she says. “I argued for a better score for you, Lance. But we cannot award you with a first-place score when things keep going awry in your tasks.”

Lance gapes at her. “But none of that’s my fault!”

Allura presses her lips tighter. “I know, Lance.” She glances at the other heads of schools, her eyes tracing the tall figure of the Durmstrang headmaster. “But one of my colleagues in particular was adamant that you not be treated unfairly.”

Lance stares at Sendak, his lips parted in silent, startled fury. “Well, that’s ironic, considering how completely unfair this is. _Thirty_!?”

“I know,” is all Allura says, which is nice, but doesn’t actually help at all.

Lance thinks that maybe he’s beginning to understand her hatred toward Durmstrang on an even more personal level. If they’re always this unfair, like Allura says they are… _man_. Sendak is a huge dick.

“You okay, dude?” Hunk’s hand is warm on Lance’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” Lance mutters, turning away from the judges’ table. “Peachy.”

Hunk looks at him sadly, worried, and Lance shrugs away from his hand.

“Really. It’s fine.” He forces a sunny grin. “Let’s go celebrate, big guy! Forty-seven points! That calls for like, at least forty-seven shots!”

“Lance,” Hunk says, smiling but looking very concerned, “ _no_. I did, uh, stress-bake like eight batches of cookies this morning, though. You wanna hit my stash?”

“Dude, yes.” Lance leans into his friend, ignoring the cold feeling lodged deep in his gut. “You know I love your cookies.”

Pidge falls into step behind them, and the cheers of the crowd follow them all the way back to the castle, and Lance manages to successfully avoid Keith’s eyes for the rest of the day.

 

**Author's Note:**

> drama.. o no :(


End file.
